Social Media Warfare

Equal Weapons for All

Michael Erbschloe

• Publisher: Auerbach Publications
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351866965
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencia de la computación
• Subtopic: Tecnología de la información

Social media applications can be weaponized with very little skill. Social media warfare has become a burden that nation states, government agencies, and corporations need to face. To address the social media warfare threat in a reasonable manner that reduces uncertainty requires dedication and attention over a very long-term. To stay secure, they need to develop the capability to defend against social media warfare attacks. Addressing unconventional warfare strategies and tactics takes time and experience, plus planning and dedication. This book will help managers develop a sound understanding of how social media warfare can impact their nation or their organization.

Chapter 1

A Framework to Analyze Emerging Social Media Warfare Strategies

Warfare and the development and definition of warfare strategies and tactics have long been dominated by military leaders, planners, and field commanders. The principles laid out by Sun Tzu in The Art of War have stood the test of time, war after war. Indeed, military science has advanced in part because of need and in part because of the growth and maturity of military academies and warfare colleges that support a structured and disciplined study of warfare strategies and tactics. Social media warfare has become a topic of study in military science and will play a bigger role in future conflicts. This chapter introduces the basic concepts and definitions of social media warfare.

1.1New Definition of War

Through the centuries, perspectives on war have evolved. By necessity, these perspectives were once dominated by a traditional warfare approach, wherein military forces went face to face against other military forces in a relatively well-defined theater of war and with a fairly well-defined theater strategy. In the twenty-first century, we are firmly entrenched in the age of irregular warfare and unconventional warfare, where the theater of war is far less well-defined and theater strategy must be fluid and adaptable, including in and through cyberspace.

Many factors have influenced a shift to the dominance of irregular warfare and unconventional warfare. These include shifting political and social alliances as well as economic conditions that have increased the availability of funding for non-traditional forces. With this new funding, non-traditional forces can obtain a variety of weapons to combine with the age-old skills of improvising affordable and effective weapons to meet combat needs in a particular theater of war. There has also been another very important factor contributing to the shift, a globally accessible means of communications and participation: the Internet and all its offerings of connectivity, social media applications, and tools of cyber warfare.

In many ways, the Internet has made insurgency easier to initiate and maintain. The Internet has opened the realm of warfare not only to insurgents fighting against a government, but also to social, cultural, economic, and religious factions around the world wishing to fight and harm each other. The Internet has enabled these factions to intentionally inflict harm on each other without guns and often without face-to-face confrontation. Welcome to the age of social media warfare, which provides equal weapons for all.

1.2Social Media Warfare Study by Academic Disciplines

A review of academic disciplines indicates that several of them will eventually provide research in the area of social media warfare, just as they have on general Internet use and specific uses of social media. Currently, it is clear that military science is well ahead of other disciplines in terms of actual attention being allocated to the impact of social media on warfare and conflict situations. The work emerging from military science will be discussed in Chapter 3: “Military Applications of Social Media Warfare.”

Other disciplines can make considerable contributions to the study of the use of the Internet and social media. However, academic disciplines are often slow to initiate research streams in new areas primarily because of a lack of funding for such research. The lack of funding is unfortunate because there is much to be researched. It is unlikely that funding will be increased in the near future given the increasing feeling of disdain for science and academia that the conservative electorate has brought to the legislative process. This attitude has spilled over into many areas resulting in a lack of funding for research topics that conservatives are afraid to address, such as gun violence in the United States.

The conservative dominance of the budget process and the deliberate avoidance of science to help guide policy making have become pervasive. The existence of climate change, for example, is denied by most conservative elected officials who have taken steps backward into a time when creationism was the dominant theory of the beginning of Earth and the origin of the species. But conservatives also have adopted other counterproductive stances, such as cutting off poor families from food stamp programs and refusing to address the rates of suicide and homelessness among military veterans in the United States.

Meanwhile, a review of academic programs listed by the National Center for Education Statistics in its 2000 edition of the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) shows several academic disciplines that can and will eventually provide more insight into social media warfare. Based on this review of the CIP, the academic disciplines that can contribute to the understanding of social media warfare are

Mass communication/media studies programs that focus on the analysis and criticism of media institutions—how people experience and understand media content; the roles of media in producing and transforming culture; the social and cultural effects of mass media; and the psychological and behavioral aspects of media messages, interpretation, and utilization.

Political communication programs that focus on human and media communication in the political process—media effects and image management; political journalism; and the production and distribution of media messages in political settings.

Social psychology programs that focus on the study of individual behavior in group contexts, group behavior, and associated phenomena—social learning theory, group theory and dynamics; social cognition and inference; attribution theory; attitude formation, criminal behavior, and other social pathologies.

Sociology programs that focus on the systematic study of human social institutions and social relationships—social theory and social organization and structure; social stratification and hierarchies; dynamics of social change; social deviance and control; and specific social groups, social institutions, and social problems.

The basic applied theories guiding most of this analysis are based on a sociological perspective of organizational structure and interaction as well as interactions between social institutions, organizations, and individuals. The central guiding philosophy is rooted in conflict theory and is heavily influenced by the work of C. Wright Mills.

1.3Social Media Warfare Participants

The dynamics that drive social media warfare are rooted in the conflict inherent between social institutions, governments, corporations, and groups or individuals that are willing to stage an insurgency or protest the social structures and norms that they feel have oppressed them. But social media warfare has also flooded the political electoral process and social change movements of all types.

There is much debate over the definition of warfare applied to conflicts facilitat...